Virginia Recovers From Early Miscues, But Ultimately, They Were Too Much, In Loss To Georgia Tech
Posted on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, 9:39 pm
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Column by Jerry Ratcliffe
ATLANTA – The bizarre turn of events late in the first quarter of Georgia Tech’s 30-27, overtime win over Virginia on Saturday, would have broken most teams. There wouldn’t have been a need for an overtime.
If nothing else, the Cavaliers’ determination to bounce back from the brink of disaster and take the Yellow Jackets to the limit, spoke volumes about how far Bronco Mendenhall’s program has come in three seasons.
Virginia could have been completely wiped out in a matter of 63 seconds when Georgia Tech’s Brant Mitchell sacked Bryce Perkins in the end zone for a safety. Perkins was left on the turn holding his leg and at that point, appeared he was done for the day.
If that wasn’t enough, the Cavaliers had to punt the ball to the Jackets, with GT freshman Juanyeh Thomas returning the kick 77 yards for a touchdown. Tech converted a two-point conversion, and in a flash UVa went from leading 7-3 to trailing 13-7.
With everything looking bleak, Virginia’s players reacted just the way Mendenhall began training them three years ago. Yes, they fought for every blade of grass. No, they didn’t give up. They played to the end. The very end, when Brian Delaney’s third field goal attempt of the day, a 35-yarder in overtime, missed.
“That series, where there’s a safety a quarterback injury, and a kick return for a touchdown, would have broken the will of many teams, and it didn’t seem to phase our guys,” Mendenhall said.
Perkins was helped off the field, examined in the tent on the sidelines, from where a couple of minutes letter, he saw teammate Joe Reed ripping down the sidelines on a 56-yard touchdown jaunt that gave UVa back the lead at 14-13 with 37 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
That’s all of that six-play possession Perkins managed to see from peeking out the plastic window of the tent as his replacement, true freshman QB Brennan Armstrong, hooked up with Reed for the score, capping a 75-yard drive.
“Seems like everytime [Armstrong] goes in something electric happens,” Mendenhall said. “He has a presence. We see it every day defensively. He feels like he can move the ball on anyone, and he’s probably right.”
It was encouraging, considering that at the time, things didn’t look good for Perkins, who has provided his own fireworks in leading Virginia to a 7-4 record thus far.
“I thought [Perkins] was done when he went off the field,” Mendenhall said. “I was surprised (when Perkins reentered the game on Virginia’s next series).”
Mendenhall stood nearby Perkins’ sprawled in the end zone as UVa doctors and trainers surrounded the Cavaliers’ star. No one expected Perkins back until he was spotted a few minutes later testing his heavily-wrapped ankle on the sidelines, running, cutting, then throwing the ball.
“I knew when I got in the tent and could move it around that I was going to be good,” Perkins said.
Well, he should have sent everyone a signal. A puff of gray smoke or something from that make-do waiting room behind the bench. It would have relieved a lot of stress, reduced a few blood pressures, sold a few less bottles of booze.
Virginia had been backed up to its own 1 and Perkins rolled to his left on second down, was smothered as the ball popped out and rolled out of the end zone for a safety.
“Dude held onto my foot and another dude came on top and my ankle and knee couldn’t move,” Perkins said. “Kinda both of them popped. It feels alright now.”
Don’t even question if he’ll be available for Black Friday’s showdown with Virginia Tech on the road.
“I’ll take treatment and get ready because I’m playing,” Perkins said emphatically during his postgame interview in the Georgia Tech weight room.
He felt he didn’t lose much speed and Mendenhall said there was no hesitation on his part to keep Perkins sidelined if he was healthy enough to play.
Perkins played hard, completing 21 of 26 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown. He also ran the ball 16 times for a net 73 yards and a score, and led the Cavaliers to the brink of pulling off the upset in Atlanta, where UVa hasn’t won since 2008.
It was a heartbreaking defeat that Virginia could have just as easily have won.
The defense certainly did its part. There were questions entering the game about whether the Cavaliers, who gave up tons of rushing yardage to now-Coastal Division champion Pitt (the Panthers iced the division earlier in the day with a win at Wake Forest) could handle the nation’s No. 1 rushing team.
Making it even more challenging, UVa’s battered defensive line was going up against Tech’s triple option with four of the Cavaliers’ five defensive linemen having never faced it before. They pulled off a yeoman’s job in holding the Jackets to 268 yards on the ground, about 100 yards less than their average.
“The defense, for the entire day, I don’t know how much fault you could find from start to finish,” Mendenhall said. “We held Georgia Tech to field goals for the most part.
“Our defense played not only tenaciously, and statistically, but didn’t give up too many points. I think it would have been 21 (Georgia Tech points) if you don’t count all the other stuff.”
The other stuff was the safety, the punt return, and then later another special teams snafu that may have well been the difference.
Late in the third quarter, leading 21-16, the Cavaliers’ defense held Tech to a three-and-out, forced a punt. The punt was short and caromed off Darrius Bratton, who didn’t see the ball. The Yellow Jackets recovered at the UVa 41 and after a long series of dive plays, scored, then converted another two-point try for a 24-21 lead with 12:30 remaining in the game.
Yes, Virginia certainly had its chances to win at the end, but those mistakes cost the Cavaliers dearly.
“Those two [special teams] plays, I thought, contributed to us not being able to pull off this game,” Mendenhall said, referring to the punt return off the safety and the punt recovery. “Those three plays (including the safety) were the difference in the game.”
Virginia did pretty much everything else it had to do to win. The Cavaliers knew going in that they had to contain the option _ which they did for the most part _ and had to control the ball when they had possession.
“Offensively we held the ball and scored,” Mendenhall said.
Against Paul Johnson’s option, which takes pride in controlling the ball and eating up the clock with long, grind-it-out possessions that keeps the opposing offense off the field with limited touches, Virginia actually owned the time of possession: 43 minutes, 47 seconds, to Tech’s 31:13.
“I was just looking at the time of possession,” Johnson said afterward. “I don’t know the time of possession in regulation, but [Virginia] did a nice job possessing the ball and driving the ball and really other than the punt that hit them in the leg.”
Trailing 24-21, Virginia had a chance on the ensuing series after the botched punt, to take the lead. The Cavaliers had a third-and-one at the Tech 13, and instead of allowing Perkins or running back Jordan Ellis to go for the first down on the run, they tried to trick the Jackets.
The play call was a fake screen, stutter and go by Reed to the right corner of the end zone. Perkins tried to give Reed a chance to catch the ball but Tech wasn’t fooled at all and Reed was well covered. UVa had to settle for a field goal that tied it at 24-all.
“Yeah, we thought we had just one opportunity and we thought we might catch them sleeping,” Mendenhall said.
Tech added a 48-yard field goal on the next series, after TaQuon Marshall completed the Jackets’ only pass of the game _ a 37-yard gain to Brad Stewart, who had gotten behind Bryce Hall and made a spectacular, stretched out, diving catch on a third-and-seven. Tech was 1-for-8 passing on the day and ran the ball 52 times.
Virginia drove from its own 34 to Tech’s 9, from where the drive stalled and Delaney kicked his second field goal, sending it into overtime.
UVa held the Jackets to a field goal, and all it had to do was either match the field goal or score a touchdown to win.
“It’s exactly how you design it (playing defense first in OT and not allowing a TD),” Mendenhall said.
“I just knew we were going to score,” Perkins said. “I had no doubt in my mind. It sucks coming up short.
“It hurts, man,” Perkins said. “Those are the games you look back and you think of little nit pick things that you could have done better that maybe would give you an extra three points or a touchdown.”
The Cavaliers couldn’t move the ball in OT. There was a four-yard pass to Olamide Zaccheaus, then a zero gain on a rush by Chris Sharpe. On third-and-six, Perkins hurdled a Tech defender but managed only three yards, setting up the missed field goal.
“I’m walking off the field and [Delaney] comes up to me and says he’s sorry,” Mendenhall told media afterward. “He did the best he could just like the rest of our team. I don’t think that play decided it, even though that’s the most visible.”
The coach thought the earlier miscues had more of an impact, and he was right.
Now, the Cavaliers, standing at 7-4 overall and 4-3 in the ACC, finish the regular season in Blacksburg where they haven’t won since 1998, facing a downtrodden Virginia Tech team that dropped to 4-6 Saturday with its fourth straight home loss, a lopsided decision to Miami.
Tech must win its next two games, UVa and now an added game with Marshall, to keep its 25-year bowl streak alive.
Meanwhile, Mendenhall remained encouraged.
“I love my team,” Mendenhall said. “I’m sad we lost the game but you saw how they played. It’s a whole different team, a whole different program. That’s encouraging. I’m their biggest fan.
“I really would like to see them have success and have meaningful games until the very end, is what you try for and that’s what they’re doing. That’s what they’ve earned. Next week is no different or the bowl game … they’re the next growth step for our program.”
